GPS Shoe helps track patients with Alzheimer’s

If you know someone with Alzheimer’s and you’re constantly worried about their whereabouts and welfare, Aetrex Worldwide and GTX Corp have developed the GPS Shoe, which as the name implies, will allow caregivers or family members to keep track of a patient with Alzheimer’s.

Alzheimer’s is a form of dementia, which can cause those afflicted by it to become confused, paranoid and unable to remember recent events. This can sometimes cause patients to wander about aimlessly and be confused by their surroundings, which can lead to dangerous situations such as walking into traffic.

There are alternative tracking methods such as watches and bracelets, but according to Andrew Carle, a professor at George Mason University, due to paranoia being one of the symptoms of Alzheimer’s, an unfamiliar object such as a watch or bracelet that does not belong to the patient can cause them to remove it and throw it away, therefore something more “common” such as a generic pair of shoes will be less suspicious.

The GPS system has been implanted into the heel of the shoe, thus giving the shoe a generic appearance as a pair of regular walking shoes. The patient can be tracked via an app and a “geofence” can even be set up, alerting caregivers when the patient wanders out of bounds. The shoes are expected to hit the US market this month and will go for $300 a pair.